Frequently Asked Questions

When will the book be in print form so I can buy it?: As you may know, The Marketing Playbook was published in 2005 (ISBN: 0-9755278-0-0) and is now out of print. Once we get all the content updated and loaded onto the website (at Marketing-Playbook.com) we will begin work on the 2008/2009 edition of the book. Stay tuned!
Why are you making the book available online?: Because I believe you should eat your own dog food. In Customer Testimonials (Marketing Strategy K-01) I tell you about the 6-step Customer Evangelist formula, which is quoted directly from my friend Ben McConnell’s book, Creating Customer Evangelists. How can I advise you to follow these principles and not carry them out myself? So, I’m doing exactly what Ben recommends.; I believe that if you have the opportunity to see how I solve problems, you’re more likely to hire my firm or recommend me to a friend, attend one of my workshops, or buy a print version of the book. It’s a worthy experiment, don’t you think?; But beyond this, I also know from firsthand experience, how difficult it is to get trustworthy marketing advice, especially B2B marketing advise that’s appropriate for a small business. I wish I had a Marketing Playbook early in my career because it would have saved me countless days trying to find a resource or come up with a new idea. Making the book available for free is my small contribution to the future “John Foxes” out there who need a mensch to provide some guidance so they won’t repeat my mistakes.
When is your web site updated?: We don’t have a specific schedule, but we do have a goal of adding at least one new Marketing Strategy each month.
Do you receive fees from the vendors for including them in your book?: A. Full disclosure: Yes and No. Yes: Some vendors have an affiliate program, which we have joined. And for those vendors who recieve measurable traffic from us and want to enjoy all the benefits of a true partnership, we’ve created a sponsorship program.; No: Not all Partners have a mechanism for paying us and this hasn’t deterred our willingness to tell everyone about them.; Bottom line: While we’re not a news organization, we are a small business who needs revenue to pay our employees and contractors. We do try very hard to keep our recommendations and our revenue separate and try our darndest to be objective. And as previously stated, we do eat our own dog food. We’ve tried all of these services and products in our own business and give our customers the opportunity, when they’re willing, to be right on the bleeding edge with us.
Are you like the Consumer Reports of Marketing?: The actual question was: “I got the opinion you were more of a Consumer Reports for marketing tactics. In other words, I was thinking you were lab testing these suppliers and then recommending those that passed the ‘test.’ Am I wrong?”; While we’re not a product testing lab (I’ve been out to the Boston area to see PCWeek’s—now eWeek—lab and we aren’t anything close to this) we are committed to finding the best solutions for solving hurdles in the Sales Process. So, while we may not do an exhausive test of 50 business card printers, for example, we will write about a vendor who we’ve tried ourselves (in a real field test) and performs well.; But back to your question, we do claim on our home page that we provide “independent testing of all popular Marketing Techniques for B2B Selling.” And this IS true. We even tell you how to use some techniques that aren’t so well known—giving you a decided selling advantage. There are, indeed, 102 Marketing Plays in the Book, and we’re adding more every week.; You see, we believe our clients and readers are simply idea-starved. They want breakthrough marketing techniques that work (emphasizing, “work”).; And we fully expect that if one of our readers trys out any of our featured vendors and gets good results they’ll stick with them and recommend them to others. After all, we’re in this together, gang.
Where did you get the idea for the Marketing Playbook?: There actually wasn’t a Eureka! moment, but rather something that developed over a long time. We noticed that most of our clients lacked the discipline and outside resources to help them get the word out on their terrific products and services. They were all B-B companies that needed a decent set of strategies and tactics to help their sales team. There was also a sense that few actually knew who in their organization was going to what, when—which felt very much like a football player who missed their assignment on a play and lost yardage to the competition. This got us thinking about football and then the parallels and analogies started going off like fireworks. The icing on the cake was when we noticed that in the B2B world there are significantly fewer transactions than in the B2C (retail) channels. Few transactions make it more difficult to see trends and draw conclusions—forcing educated guesses. And again, this felt like the short football season which can be decided in just a handful of games, unlike the long baseball or basketball season.
How do you decide which vendors to feature?: We’ve been careful to select only those vendors we’ve used in our own business, either as a part of a client project or as a means to promote our own business. We are well aware there are many, many competing suppliers who compete with—and may even be better providers than—those we’ve chosen to feature. The vendors you see in the online Marketing-Playbook.com site and in the printed Marketing Playbook are those who have stood the test of time for us and our clients.
What do I do if I have a question that is not answered on this page?: You can post a comment to on the Contact form.
How can I become one of your selected Vendors and get into the book?: If you have a product or service you want us to look at so you can one day be among our selected vendors, just contact us here and make note of your request. We look forward to reviewing your product or service to see how it can help us or one of our clients. We love being the guinea pigs.
How can I sponsor Marketing-Playbook.com and your workshops?: Just drop us a note or call us. Our contact information is here.
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If I register on Marketing-Playbook.com, will my e-mail be shared with anyone?: Although we reference this in our Privacy Pledge it bears repeating. We have never sold/rented/shared our registered user data with any third parties, and will not do so in the future.